ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — Anyone who finds a piece of debris from a Malaysia Airlines plane that is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean in 2014 could receive a financial reward, relatives of those who were on the plane said Monday in Madagascar.

A group of relatives who travelled to the island nation off the southeast coast of Africa made the offer in hopes that residents will scour some coastal areas of Madagascar, where possible parts of Flight MH370 washed ashore.

Meanwhile, a Malaysian official investigating the disappearance of the Boeing 777 was in Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo, to pick up debris that has already been found and will be analyzed to see if it came from the aircraft.

“The more debris we find, the easier it will be to find where the crash happened,” said Ghislain Wattrelos, a Frenchman who lost his wife and two of his three children when the plane deviated from its flight path from Malaysia to Beijing and vanished on March 8, 2014.

RIJASOLORIJASOLO/AFP/Getty ImagesPeople attend a press conference organised by an organisation representing the relatives of missing MH370 passengers, on December 5, 2016 in Antananarivo.

Malaysia, Australia and China are close to completing a deep-sea sonar search, so far unsuccessful, of 120,000 square kilometres off Australia’s southwest coast in the Indian Ocean. They say they will suspend operations if there is no new evidence that could help pinpoint the crash site. Relatives of the missing believe the search should continue.

Wattrelos, as well as two people who lost their mothers on the flight — Grace Nathan of Malaysia and Jiang Hui of China — spoke at a news conference in Antananarivo. They did not specify how much money might be given to someone who finds a confirmed piece of Flight MH370, saying it depends on the significance of the debris and the limited resources of the families.

That includes the cost of flights, accommodation and other expenses that the relatives are spending on a weeklong trip to Madagascar, which will include travel to coastal areas where plane debris may have washed up after drifting across the ocean.

There, they plan to hand out leaflets asking people to look for possible plane parts, described as often grey, with an interior, honeycomb design. Anyone who finds an item should note the time and place of discovery, take photographs and wrap the item in plastic and hand it to the nearest airport or police station, according to the leaflets.

The families say there are three major areas in Madagascar where Flight MH370 debris could have washed up: Isle Sainte-Marie, Antongil Bay and Nosy Be, a big tourist destination. They also want people in Tanzania and Mozambique to be on the lookout. A piece found in Tanzania has been confirmed as part of the plane, while a couple of pieces found in Mozambique have been described as almost certainly coming from the plane.

Confirmation that the plane crashed came last year when a wing part washed ashore on Reunion Island in the western Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar.

Nathan, the Malaysian who lost her mother, said families asked officials in vain for months to launch a search for debris around Africa, and finally decided to look themselves. She speculated that their trip to Madagascar may have pushed Malaysian investigators to also travel there to pick up debris this week.

“Our initiative to come here has somehow put some pressure on them,” Nathan said. “At least one good thing has already come out of our journey.”

This week, the German public broadcaster ARD obtained information regarding the existence of thousands of human skulls and other remains of African people in the possession of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which presides over state museums in Berlin.

According to Deutsche Welle, ARD identified about 1,000 skulls that originated from what is now Rwanda and about 60 from Tanzania. Researchers and state officials will now work toward the repatriation of the remains; they were claimed at a time when both countries were part of the larger German East Africa colony, which existed from 1885 until the end of World War I.

Wikimedia CommonsA German explorer in Cameroon

The existence of such a collection in European museums is both disturbing and not at all surprising. In the late 19th century, as various competing colonial powers carved up large swaths of Africa and held sway over the islands of the Pacific Ocean, early anthropologists and Western collectors made a hobby of hoarding the remains of indigenous peoples.

In an era of scientific racism, such artifacts – if they can be considered that – were in high demand. European museums staged “human zoos,” where people from various indigenous communities in far-flung colonies would be put on display in invented habitats, like caged animals.

The bones and skulls and even embalmed heads of those from remote tribal cultures were objects of fascination and inquiry. A generation of eugenicist scientists developed theories of racial difference and superiority through the study of these objects. The hideous thinking behind such “scholarship” would find its most gruesome endpoint in the experiments of Nazi scientists during the Holocaust.

Wikimedia CommonsGermany colonized large swaths of East Africa

Some of the remains detailed in the Berlin collection are believed to belong to insurgents killed by German troops during various colonial wars. Their skulls, like those belonging to other Africans fighting other colonial forces, were sent back to the imperial capital for analysis. In many other incidents, unscrupulous bounty hunters would simply kill or exhume bodies of indigenous people to sell off to eager European collectors.

In recent decades, the discovery and tussle over the repatriation of such remains has led to diplomatic incidents and awkward concessions from Western governments and museums.

In 2000, a museum in Spain finally sent back to Botswana a whole, stuffed African man from the Kalahari Desert whose body had fallen into the hands of French taxidermists in the 1830s. In the past five years alone, according to Deutsche Welle, Germany has returned human remains found in its museums to former colony Namibia, and to Australia and Paraguay. In 2012, France finally sent back to New Zealand 20 mummified tattooed heads of Maori warriors, which European sailors in the 18th and 19th centuries coveted as valuable prizes to sell back home.

John MacDougall / AFP / Getty Images A photo taken on September 30, 2011 shows members of a Namibian delegation a following a hand-over ceremony of 20 skulls taken from Namibia to Germany after a massacre of indigenous Namibians at the start of the last century

“We close a terrible chapter of colonial history and we open a new chapter of friendship and mutual respect,” declared then-French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand.

A popular arts blog offered a fairly thorough roundup last year, which include numerous American museums as well: “To sum up all the recent returns would be a harrowing litany. To cite a few: last year the Field Museum in Chicago returned the remains of three Tasmanian Aboriginal people; in 2011 the Natural History Museum in London returned the skeletal remains of 138 people to the Torres Strait Islanders in Australia; and in 2008, the remains of 180 people from a bulldozed ancient mound were returned to the Onondaga Nation by the New York State Museum. In 2013, the remains of Julia Pastrana, held at the University of Oslo, were finally buried. Pastrana was exhibited as a human freak in the 19th century due to her hypertrichosis terminalis condition that covered her face in hair; her mummified body was toured after her death and traded hands as an oddity. In 2002, the remains of Sarah Baartman were interred in South Africa after being on display for decades at the Museum of Man in Paris. Like Pastrana, Baatman had been exhibited as a 19th-century spectacle during her lifetime, labeled the ‘Hottentot Venus’ for her reportedly round buttocks and elongated genitalia.”

Following the ARD report, Rwanda’s ambassador to Germany called for the swift return of these remains to their country of origin. A Tanzanian commentator on Deutsche Welle’s Kiswahili website, spoke of the larger sense of grievance and outrage felt by many in the former colonial world.

A lone Cape buffalo was crossing the arid, scooped-out plain at the bottom of Ngorongoro Crater when the lions seized upon it.

Two were approaching from one side, three from another. Behind the buffalo was a pool of water. Surrounded, it retreated a few steps and lowered its horns.

The stand-off was slow, silent, mesmerizing. The lions began their attack, launching themselves one at a time onto the back of the buffalo. Each time the buffalo reared, throwing the big cats off one after another. Several yards away, a pack of hyenas lay in wait.

My 12-year-old daughter put down her binoculars. She didn’t want to see the buffalo die.

But it lived to see another day. After nearly half an hour, the lions stood down, and their would-be prey high-tailed it back to its herd.

The lions started to play in the long grass.

Our guide, Isack Msuya, shrugged. The lions weren’t hungry enough today, he told us. You never know what you’re going to see on safari.

Our seven-day safari in Tanzania was the most time I had spent on the road in a single week — often, more than eight hours a day on the East African country’s notoriously rough roads. It was sometimes incredibly dusty, but there also were times when there was little to see. And occasionally, we were hounded by tsetse flies. For the vast majority of the time, though, it was amazing. We never lost that kid-in-a-candy-store feeling.

It went beyond just seeing the animals of legend — although see them we did: zebras; wildebeests; elephants; giraffes; lions; baboons; gazelles; cheetahs; leopards; hyenas; monkeys; buffaloes; crocodiles.

The most awe-inspiring part was the firsthand, extended window on how they behave and interact in their own environment. Creatures we had seen as exotic zoo specimens became three-dimensional, alternately playful, watchful, raucous, social and placid. In many ways, they were as complicated and fascinating as humans can be.

Sophie MuirElephants at sunset in Serengeti National Park.

We saw a herd of elephants team up to help a slippery baby climb up a river bank and had an up-close view of how giraffes eat in the wild, navigating the toothpick thorns of the acacia tree with their long, dark tongues.

There were young male impalas out to impress the ladies, gracefully sparring and locking horns; hippos congregated by the dozens in pools, resting on one another and spewing water from their enormous jaws; two fuzzy cheetah cubs curled up with their mother. More than once, we were close enough to touch herds of zebras as they brushed by our truck.

The circle of life was evident everywhere. We saw the lifeless body of a gazelle lodged high in the fork of a tree and a quick silhouette of the leopard that had stored it there for a future meal.

We saw – and heard – a hyena gnawing on the bones of a wildebeest with vultures biding their time, circling in the pale sky. We saw an engorged python digesting a mother porcupine, quills and all, with her babies looking on.

Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images
Wildebeests are pictured in Tanzania's Ngorongoro National Park in an August 25, 2007 file photo.

We saw the iridescent birds of Tanzania, including the aptly named superb swallows, lilac-breasted rollers and orange-bellied parrots, alighting in glossy rainbows. We even witnessed an ostrich’s mating dance. (It was very bit as ungainly as you might expect, unless you’re an ostrich, of course; in that case, it seemed to be very enticing.)

The landscape and the people who lived within it were an essential part of the experience. Tarangire National Park is thick with baobabs, the ancient, iconic African trees with their massive trunks and root-like branches.

There was the chilly-but-lush mist forest circling the rim of Ngorongoro, the endless parched plains the Serengeti is named for, and the African sunsets that seemed to last for hours melting down the horizon.

The Masai, who live in the areas surrounding the national parks, were striking wrapped in bright plaid cloths, herding cattle. We twice saw Masai boys in the white face paint, feathered headdress and black clothes traditional for circumcision ceremonies, held shortly after male children reach puberty.

But last fall when my husband and 14-year-old daughter were invited to be part of a service trip to Rwanda, we starting exploring the possibility of building onto their trip a safari for our family of four.

When I talked to friends who had gone on safari, I heard two things: It was life-changing. And it was the most money they had ever spent on vacation.

Sticker shock is common, agreed Jay Hanson, senior safari consultant for Africa Travel Resource. The London-based company books safaris across the continent for about 3,500 people annually. Prices range from US$2,000 per person up to US$50,000.

“A safari can be one of the most expensive things people ever buy after a house and a car,” he said. “A top-end safari costs tens of thousands of dollars. People’s expectations can be out of line at the outset. They might say they want a luxury safari, but when they see the prices of the camps, they’re like, ‘Wow, that’s US$4,000 a night.’ ”

Deciding where in Africa you want to go is the first step, Hanson said. If you have your pick of places, he adds, it’s hard to beat Tanzania.

“Tanzania is an incredible safari destination,” Hanson said. “It offers such a diversity and abundance of wildlife. You have elephants, giraffes, lions, zebras, cheetahs, chimpanzees; you have rain forest, mountains, the Masai, the islands. It has everything you could possibly want in an authentic safari.”

The length of a safari and how far to plan in advance depends on your destination and how much you have your heart set on specific experiences and accommodations. For example, Hanson recommends six nights for Tanzania, where parks are diverse and far apart; but in South Africa’s Kruger National Park three or four nights can be sufficient to see what the park has to offer.

Cameron Spencer/Getty Imagesn elephant walks at the Pafuri game reserve on July 21, 2010 in Kruger National Park, South Africa.

Africa Travel Resource books trips from a week to two years in advance. Hanson suggested that if you want your safari to be exactly how you want it to be in peak season, you should start planning it at least 12 months ahead. And you’re probably going to need help. At first, agents can help you map out a trip, given your interests, budget and time. When you’ve narrowed it down to a certain place, you’ll still need advice.

“It’s very difficult to plan a safari yourself,” Hanson said. “Getting from lodge to lodge is challenging, and many don’t even rent to individuals.” In Tanzania, the roads are not only in poor condition, they are also unmarked within the parks, making it nearly impossible to get around without an experienced driver.

We opted for a safari with Duma Explorer, based on its reviews and ability to fit our budget of US$2,000 per person. Started and co-owned by American Stacy Readal and her Tanzanian husband, Hezron Mbise, Duma Explorer focuses on Tanzania and runs about 200 safaris per year. Like many safari operators, it offers itineraries at the luxury, standard and budget level.

Our safari included two days in Tarangire National Park, three days in Serengeti National Park and two days in the Ngorongoro Crater area. Except for one night in Ngorongoro, we stayed in permanently tented camps — something Readal highly recommends.

Getty Images"I always tell people to stay in tented camps as opposed to lodges," Readal says.

“I always tell people to stay in tented camps as opposed to lodges,” she said. “They allow you to hear the sounds of nature from your room, and the camps are usually much smaller, allowing for a more intimate experience.”

A surprise was how comfortable, even luxurious, the tented camps are. I’ve been camping before, and camping has never looked so good.

Kiota Camp, ours in the Serengeti, was a particular standout. Our “tent” may have had a roof and walls of canvas, but it also had full-size beds, indoor plumbing and electricity. The camp also provided excellent, fresh food (impressively made in a cooking tent often under threat from hyenas) and a roaring campfire every night under the star-jammed African sky.

Perhaps the most important element of our safari experience was Msuya, our incredible guide. Much of the wildlife we saw — and our understanding of what we were seeing — have to be credited to his uncanny ability to spot animals from seemingly miles away and his encyclopedic knowledge of habitats, honed over two decades of leading safaris. You spend a lot of time with your guide; Msuya’s expertise, patience and kindness made him an excellent safari companion.

I asked Readal and Hanson for recommendations for potential safari-goers with limited funds. Readal recommended a budget camping safari, which comes with a cook and driver-guide who put up tents that include mattresses. These are usually set up at camps that have bathrooms and showers.

Both Hanson and Readal advised considering a safari in the spring, which is considered the low — or shoulder — season. Camps and lodges go for half, if not less, of their summer rates. It’s greener and far less crowded in the spring — and there are lots of baby animals to see.

Despite what can be a hefty price tag, Hanson said, many of his clients are repeat customers, for a common reason: “It’s easy to fall in love with Africa.”

Related

Tarangire Simba Lodge: 011-255-27-275-3001; simbaportfolio.com.
A relatively new eco-friendly camp right outside of Tarangire Park on Lake Burunge. The camp has large tented rooms with indoor plumbing, a pool and a lovely viewing platform wrapped around a baobab tree to watch wildlife and the spectacular sunset.

Kiota Camp: 011-255-756-024-293, kiotacamp.com.
Owned by Duma Explorer, this camp in the central Serengeti was our favourite. The tented rooms are spacious with hot showers on demand, good food and excellent customer service. We enjoyed catching up with fellow safari-goers at the nightly campfire and dining under the stars.

Vijiji Center: Kwa Pole Rd., Nguruma Village, Arusha, Tanzania; 011-255-754-322-664, vijijicenter.com.
Vijiji Center has 12 guest rooms in six traditional African guesthouses on two acres, with a swimming pool and restaurant. We found it to be a pretty refuge away from bustling Arusha. The owners also offer a variety of excursions and safaris and specialize in cultural tourism. Rooms average US$75 per night, with breakfast included.

Safari planners and What to do

Africa Travel Resource: 1-888-487-5418, africatravelresource.com.
Based in London, Africa Travel Resource is an independent company that specializes in creating custom-tailored safaris in multiple countries across Africa. Prices range from about US$2,000 to US$50,000 per person.

Duma Explorer: 011-255-787-079-127, dumaexplorer.com.
Duma Explorer, headquartered in Arusha, offers safaris, hikes and mountain treks, including up Mount Kilimanjaro, in national parks throughout Tanzania. Prices range from around US$1,100 per person for a five-day budget safari up to as much as US$20,000 per person for a luxury safari with multiple destinations and flights.

SYDNEY, Australia — A wing flap that washed ashore on an island off Tanzania has been identified as belonging to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Australian officials said Thursday.

The flap was found in June by residents on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania, and officials had previously said it was highly likely to have come from the missing Boeing 777. An analysis by experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the search for the plane, subsequently confirmed the part was indeed from the aircraft, the agency said in a statement.

AFP PHOTO / ATSB / Handout An undated handout photo released by the Australian Transport Safety Board (ATSB) and received on September 15, 2016, shows officials inspecting a large piece of debris found in Tanzania recently which has been confirmed as a part of a wing flap from missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet MH370.

Several pieces of wreckage suspected to have come from the plane have washed ashore on coastlines around the Indian Ocean since the aircraft vanished with 239 people on board during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

The wing flap brings to five the number of pieces of debris the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has determined are almost certainly, or are definitely, from Flight 370. Another piece of wing found a year ago on La Reunion Island, near Madagascar, was positively identified by French officials.

Search officials expect more wreckage to wash up in the months ahead. But so far, none of the debris has helped narrow down the precise location of the main underwater wreckage.

AFP PHOTO / ATSB / HandoutAn undated handout photo released by the Australian Transport Safety Board (ATSB) and received on September 15, 2016, shows part number information on a large piece of debris found in Tanzania recently which has been confirmed as a part of a wing flap from missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet MH370.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau anticipates search crews will complete their sweep of the 120,000-square kilometre (46,000-square mile) search zone in the Indian Ocean off Australia’s west coast by December.

Meanwhile, oceanographers have been analyzing the wing flaps from La Reunion and Tanzania in the hope of identifying a possible new search area through drift modeling. But a new search would require a new funding commitment, with Malaysia, Australia and China agreeing in July that the $160 million hunt will be suspended once the current stretch of ocean is exhausted unless new evidence emerges that would pinpoint a specific location of the aircraft.

Related

Earlier this week, relatives of some of the passengers on board the plane met with officials from the transport bureau and asked that more potential debris found around the Indian Ocean be examined. The families believe those items may help provide clues to the plane’s location.

Scientists have found a huge helium gas deposit in Tanzania, and the discovery could help alleviate worries about a global helium shortage in recent years.

Helium — a colourless, odourless gas — is used to keep balloons afloat, but is also crucial for medical and scientific research. It is the only element capable of reliably cooling the superconducting magnets in MRI machines, and is used as a shielding gas in steel welding.

A team of researchers from Oxford and Durham universities, and helium exploration company Helium One, located a large gas field by using new exploration methods. Helium is usually discovered accidentally while drilling for oil and natural gas, but the new intentional discovery in Tanzania’s East African Rift Valley is the first of its kind. Durham University PhD candidate Diveena Danabalan presented the group’s discovery at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Yokohama, Japan.

Related

“By combining our understanding of helium geochemistry with seismic images of gas trapping structures, independent experts have calculated a probable resource of 54 billion cubic feet in just one part of the rift valley,” co-author Chris Ballentine said in a press release.

The helium was discovered by borrowing the techniques used in natural gas exploration to understand how helium accumulates underground. The researchers found that volcanic activity produces enough heat to drive the gas out of ancient rocks, and up into shallow gas fields.

Ballentine explained that global helium consumption is about 8 billion cubic feet per year, and that the world’s largest supplier, the U.S. Federal Helium Reserve, has a current reserve of just 24 billion cubic feet.

“This is a game changer for the future security of society’s helium needs, and similar finds in the future may not be far away,” he added.

The U.S. government started stockpiling helium during the 1920s, and by 1990 had accumulated roughly 35 billion cubic feet. But in 1996, congress passed the Helium Privatization Act, and started selling off strategic reserves at artificially low prices in order to pay off debts.

According to the U.S. federal Bureau of Land Management, helium prices have tripled over the past decade, and the reserve is expected to be depleted by 2020.

Now that the supply of helium is dwindling, prices are increasing to reflect the actual value of the rare element. While helium is abundant in the universe, most of it is born out of radioactive decay and is trapped in stars. On Earth, helium makes up less than a thousandth of one per cent of the atmosphere.

In response to the shrinking supply, the British Medical Association launched a campaign in 2015 to ban helium in party balloons, calling it a “frivolous use” of an invaluable, irreplaceable gas.”

At current rates of consumption, the recent discovery in Tanzania will only supply the world for about 7 years, but according to Pete Barry at the University of Oxford’s Department of Earth Sciences, the methods used by the team could lead explorers to other helium gas fields.

“We can apply this same strategy to other parts of the world with a similar geological history to find new helium resources,” he said.

“We have linked the importance of volcanic activity for helium release with the presence of potential trapping structures…this is badly needed given the current demand for helium.”

JOHANNESBURG — Five miners have been rescued in Tanzania after surviving for up to 41 days underground by eating cockroaches and frogs and drinking drips of muddy groundwater.

A total of 20 miners are thought to have been trapped on Oct. 5 after their shaft filled with sand as they dug for gold in an abandoned mine in the northwestern Shinyanga region, 800 kilometres west of Dar es Salaam.

Fourteen escaped but six others remained trapped. Five of them were brought out on Sunday dehydrated and thin but alive in what mining officials described as a “miracle.” One other man was discovered dead.

Speaking from their hospital beds, one described how they kept going despite the hunger and constant darkness.

Chacha Wambura told state-owned television: “We survived by eating cockroaches, frogs and other insects as well as drinking dirty water that seeped in from above. Batteries of the torches and flashlights ran out and we ended up in a cave that we earlier used as a store for our tools.”

We survived by eating cockroaches, frogs and other insects as well as drinking dirty water that seeped in from above. Batteries of the torches and flashlights ran out and we ended up in a cave that we earlier used as a store for our tools

The miners were discovered after others working nearby heard their cries and alerted the authorities, who had called off a previous operation to free them when the shaft first collapsed.

If confirmed as the same people who were trapped in October, they will join an illustrious few who have survived for more than a month underground.

In Chile, 33 miners were rescued after 69 days underground but they lived for the first 19 days on cans of tuna, milk and biscuits stored in their underground shelter and later from food sent down to them by rescuers on the surface.

Small-scale digging for gold in disused mines in remote areas of Tanzania is a common but dangerous occupation for impoverished bounty-hunters, who lack the tools to properly secure mine shafts. In April, 19 people were killed in the same area after a mine shaft collapsed.

NAIROBI – They call her the Queen of Ivory – a 66-year-old Chinese woman who became famous for her role in Africa’s illegal wildlife trade. Over 15 years, she helped smuggle more than 700 elephant tusks out of Africa, officials said Thursday. But as authorities closed in, Yang Feng Glan managed to evade arrest.

Until now.

Yang was detained in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam after a high-speed chase and is apparently the most prominent Chinese national charged with wildlife trafficking in Africa. The short, bespectacled owner of a well-known Chinese restaurant doesn’t fit the image of a poaching kingpin, but that’s exactly what she is, according to Tanzanian officials.

Yang was behind an illicit trade worth millions of dollars, using her ties to the Chinese and Tanzanian elite to move ivory across the world, officials said. Ivory trafficking has resulted in immense damage to wildlife across Africa, but particularly in Tanzania. Between 2009 and 2014, the country’s elephant population plummeted from 109,051 to 43,330.

“She was at the centre of that killing,” said Andrea Crosta, the executive director of Elephant Action League, a U.S.-based environmental watchdog group.

China’s role in Africa’s poaching crisis is no secret. The country consumes tons of ivory every year, much of it mixed into holistic medicine with no proven value. That demand has driven low-level poachers across the continent to massacre elephant and rhino populations. But the role played by Chinese business people based in Africa has been hazy.

(AP photo)In this photo taken on Wednesday Oct. 7, 2015, Chinese national Young Feng Glan , right, covers her face as she is escorted by police from Kisutu Resident's Magistrate Court in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The story of Yang, who will now be tried in a Tanzania court, might change the way people think about the global ivory trade. If she is convicted, it will turn out that one of Africa’s wildlife-trafficking kingpins was also one of its most prominent Chinese interlocutors.

According to investigators, Yang came to Africa in the 1970s, just as China was beginning construction on a railway in Tanzania. She was a translator back then, one of her country’s first trained Swahili speakers.

Yang moved around eastern Africa, becoming a well-known businesswoman, founding a company called Beijing Great Wall Investment and an eatery called Beijing Restaurant. By 2012, she was the secretary-general of the Tanzania China-Africa Business Council. She named her daughter Fei, the first character of the word for Africa in Mandarin.

All the while, Tanzanian investigators said Thursday, she was smuggling millions of dollars in ivory to her contacts in China, even financing poachers who targeted animals in protected areas.

“She played a tremendous role in the killing of animals,” said a senior Tanzanian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. ” She helped buy the poachers guns and ammunition. She was the connection between the local brokers and the international market.”

Tanzania’s National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit (NTSCIU) identified Yang more than a year ago and followed her role in the smuggling network, authorities said. They found that she was using her restaurant in downtown Dar es Salaam as a cover, sneaking ivory from outside of the city into food shipments that went to the kitchen, they said.

It was the same restaurant Yang had spoken proudly about in the Chinese press.

“Now I do not count on the restaurant to make money,” she told the China Daily newspaper last year. “Instead, I see it as a place where people from China and Tanzania can communicate, get to know more friends and conduct information exchanges.”

As China’s investment in Africa boomed in recent years, rumors swirled about the relationship between the country’s development projects on the continent and the illegal ivory trade. But Chinese smugglers were rarely arrested. They were too well-connected to the government, many suspected. Many said they believe that is how Yang managed to operate with impunity for so many years.

“When we think of a kingpin, we think of someone like Al Capone,” Crosta said. “But this was someone who mingled with the country’s elite, who blended in.”

Tanzanian officials sent to arrest Yang last week surrounded her house for seven hours. She managed to sneak out a side door and jump into her car. She then led authorities on a car chase through part of the city.

It was from neighbours that Scola Joseph first heard of two strange men in the village asking after her children. She knew immediately the moment she dreaded had come.

Packing small bags for Elijah, 3, and Christine, 5, she led them away from their home and towards the nearest town, to a government camp where hundreds others like them were living under protection. It was the only way to keep them alive.

Buhangija is one of nine such centres in Tanzania. This is where the country’s endangered class of albino children are moved in an attempt to keep them safe from witch doctors, who claim their body parts, ground up and put in charms, can bring wealth and fortune.

Separated from their families and forced to largely stay indoors because of the effects on their skin of the east African sun, they sleep three or four to a bed. They survive on basic food rationed by their head teacher because of erratic government funding.

Alejandro A. Alvarez/Philadelphia Daily News via APBaraka Cosmas Rusambo, 6 years old with albinism from Tanzania, is treated at Global Medical Relief Fund and Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia on Wednesday, June 17, 2015. In March, assailants lopped off the right hand of Rusambo. Tanzanians subscribing to superstition see those with albino complexions as demons or ghosts with mystical powers whose body parts are cut off and used in witchcraft and potions.

“These children are living like refugees and it’s shameful,” said Peter Ajali, the headteacher. “I try to take the part of the parents and love them and keep them safe but it’s not humanitarian for them to live like this.”

Albinism, caused by a lack of pigmentation in their skin, hair and eyes, affects about one in 20,000 people worldwide, but is for unknown reasons more common in sub-Saharan Africa and Tanzania particularly, where it claims one in 1,400.

At least 75 children and adults with albinism have been killed here since 2000 and more than 62 others have escaped with severe injuries following the witch-doctors’ attacks.

With witch-doctors paying as much as $75,000 for a full set of body parts, which they bury or grind up to keep in charms, some of those implicated in the killings are members of the victims’ own families. The UN warned recently of a marked increase in attacks on albinos, which it said were at greater risk with the approach of national and local elections in October. The fear is unscrupulous politicians will turn to the traditions of the witch-doctors, known as mganga, and their ambitious promises.

BUNYAMIN AYGUN/AFP/Getty ImagesThis image courtesy of the Milliyet Daily shows women carrying their albino children on May 5, 2014, in Dar es Salaam.

The government has arrested 200 witch-doctors and this month a home affairs minister told MPs that murdering albinos would never win them their seats. Orders have gone out to the provinces to safeguard people with albinism in their communities. With scant resources, their answer has been to herd them into camps.

At Buhangija in the northern town of Shinyanga, the numbers of albino children arriving at what was originally a primary school for children with special needs has risen from 170 last year to 295 at present. Many more are expected in the coming months.

They join 64 deaf pupils already at the cash-strapped centre, and a further 40 who are blind.

Buhangija was built with boarding space for 40 children. Its headteacher has been forced to turn the library, outhouses and a half-built classroom into more dormitories. Inside, metal bunks stacked three-high are topped with foam mattresses and tatty sheets, and children sleep three or four to a bed.

Aged as young as two and as old as 25, they spend their time outside classes playing football with rolled plastic bags and sitting talking on the dusty ground. Visitors are quickly encircled and clutched at by the little hands of those eager for a moment of the affection they are now forced to go without.

Scola Joseph comes to see her children each month and stays for several days but the majority of parents leave their children and never come back.

Ajali said albino children were still seen as a curse. “Many women’s families make them leave after they are born,” he said. “We ask members of the local community to come and greet our children because they lack love and it makes them feel better.”

Mary Mabula, 15, was sent to the centre in 2010 and hasn’t seen her mother, father or siblings since. Asked if she misses them, she ducks her head and whispers “yes.”

Alejandro A. Alvarez/Philadelphia Daily News via APBaraka Cosmas Rusambo, 6 years old with albinism from Tanzania, is treated at Global Medical Relief Fund and Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia on Wednesday, June 17, 2015.

Her parents said the centre was the only place she would be safe. “People used to say to me: ’You’re the one who can make us rich,’” she said.

The threats are not empty. A month ago, a 30-year-old woman had her right arm severed below the elbow by two men who broke into the hut where she was sleeping with her four children.

In March, a woman trying to shield her one and three-year-old children suffered machete injuries inflicted by five men. The baby boy’s limbless torso was found days later in a nearby forest. His father was arrested.

The potential value of Buhangija’s 295 occupants means armed police join private security guards from dusk until dawn. Unable to leave the dusty compound, Mary concentrates on reading and dreams of becoming a doctor. “I hope I can go home one day,” she said.

Among the centre’s supporters is Under The Same Sun, a charity set up by a Canadian man with albinism. Martin Haule, a trained accountant and teacher who heads its educational projects, said: “Even people who have albinism do not understand that it’s just about the skin. They too believe they are somehow not fully human.”

January Makamba, a candidate vying to take over from President Jakaya Kikwete, said a better solution had to be found for people with albinism to live safely in Tanzania.

“It’s an embarrassment to this country that we have to keep them in camps like this,” he said. “It’s true some of those who procure body parts operate at the highest levels of society. These are deep-seated beliefs and we must confront them as a nation.”

The reason, I figured when I thought about it, is that I’ve been pretty lucky and, thanks to my job, have travelled a lot, with the end result that my whole bloody life is a bit of a bucket list.

But last month, I hitched a ride on someone else’s list, and in the process found out that I do have one of my own.

Some of my running friends had been talking for a while about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania — now that I’ve done it, I can use the word “climbing” where before, I insisted on calling it a hike or else would have passed out in terror — and earlier this year, two of them, Jennifer and Sheelagh, got serious. I signed on, mostly because I couldn’t bear hearing afterwards about one more adventure of theirs that I’d missed.

But I also needed a break, and on some level, realized it. Three months of covering the trial of Luka Magnotta can sap you of the capacity for joy. Years of busman’s holidays — always online, sort of quasi-working, or writing books — can grind you down. A decade of making a dog, however splendid the dog, your sole love object, can render you a little limited.

All of this had happened to me anyway, and though I live on a pretty simple plane — and am a simple and mostly happy creature — even I knew it.

And I was so distracted, near-permanently in the modern way, that I barely looked at any of the research Jen had done in the organizing of our trip; I just paid, and went, blind and stupid as a mole emerging into the light.

I expected none of it, not how physically hard the hike was and what a relief it is to have an utterly empty mind, or how beautiful the animals — unimaginable numbers of them — we saw on the safari afterwards, or how much fun it was to meet strangers (and not be after something from them — an interview, a profound word, a story tip — as we reporters usually are), or how lovely it was to discover that my battered heart and attendant bits and pieces aren’t dead yet.

We went on a tour and were hooked up with seven other people — three American engineers (two Jims and a Lou), a just-retired Californian teacher (Donn), a fabulous Texas woman (big Southern hair, impeccable nails and makeup, even on the mountain, but all inner steel and competence) nicknamed Natalya, two 30-something Aussie women (Lee and Zoey) and an uber-stylish Frenchwoman named Beatrice.

What the others most loved is for them to know. But for me, it was them, period

At first they were a blur, but over the week of the hike, all their faces came into focus, and I realized we had a wanker-free group. There wasn’t an uninteresting one in the bunch; our new friends were accomplished, tough and funny. I fell a little in love with them all (all right, maybe one more than the others, but still), and even with Jen and Sheelagh, whom I knew pretty well already, and of course with Tanzania.

Our days were startlingly uncomplicated: wake, eat breakfast, load up the backpack with water and start walking, usually for six hours or more, one foot in front of the other.

(The watchword of our five terrific guides was “Pole, pole,” Swahili for “slowly, slowly,” and at first, Natalya, Zoey and Lee, the babies of the group, feared they’d been saddled with a pack of decrepit geezers. But the wisdom of the pace meant that as we got higher and higher, the air thinner and thinner, we could keep going where those in other groups who had bolted by us later faded.)

We’d break for lunch, walk some more, have dinner and then, with no fires allowed on the mountain, the sun gone and the cold creeping in, would hit the sack. Every day was exactly the same. Despite that, as a non-camper, I still managed to screw up the 31 or so zippers of the tent, and leave the wrong ones undone, and could distinguish my tent from the others only by hollering for Jen.

(Video from an unrelated 2011 expedition:)

I cried the first night, when some of the porters sang in Swahili and danced. I cried with gratitude for friends, old and new. I cried at the African sky, the stars that Jen and Jim showed me. I cried at how bloody hard life is in Tanzania, and how so many of those we saw later, on the roadsides, seemed to be perpetually waiting — for a bus, for a break, for a job, for a tap on the shoulder, for something. I cried when, after making the final ascent by moonlight, the sun breaking pink on the horizon, we got to the top of Kili. I cried, just about every time I saw them, at the elephants.

Luckily, I am a practised and quiet weeper, and on the mountain at least, there was always a wind to explain my wet cheeks.

It wasn’t just the adventure, the physical nature of what we were doing sweeping aside the detritus in all our heads, it was sharing it with them — with shy Beatrice, complicated Natalya, patient Jen and brave Sheelagh, ridiculous Lou (he is 82 and whenever any of us was tempted to whinge, we thought of him and hardened the hell up), droll Zoey and Lee, capable, chill Donn, elegant and reserved Jim, and Jim of the great, level, searching gaze.

It was remembering, in the soaring cathedral that is Africa, how we need and want one another. That’s all that’s on my new bucket list — to feel like that again, more often, soon, right now, tomorrow.

Mea culpa: Because I’m new to the case and still catching up, this week in covering the trial of two alleged Via train terrorists, I mistakenly referred to the identity of an FBI agent who was the key witness as being protected. I was wrong. Je suis blockhead.

Chinese officials and businesspeople used a state trip by President Xi Jinping and other high-level visits to smuggle ivory out of Tanzania, an environmental watchdog said Thursday, casting doubt over Beijing’s efforts to end the illegal trade that has led to rampant elephant poaching throughout Africa.

China is the world’s largest importer of smuggled tusks, and Tanzania is the largest source of poached ivory, the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency said. Poaching in Tanzania alone has killed half of the country’s elephants in the past five years, the group said in the report.

It said Chinese-led criminal gangs conspired with corrupt Tanzanian officials to traffic huge amounts of ivory, some of which was loaded in diplomatic bags on Xi’s plane during a presidential visit in March 2013.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied the report. Spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily briefing that China has “consistently” opposed poaching and has sought to crack down on ivory smuggling.

AP Photo/Xinhua, Lan Hongguang FileChinese President Xi Jinping waves next to his Tanzanian counterpart Jakaya Kikwete, right, upon his arrival in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on March 24, 2013. The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency said Thursday that Chinese officials used a state trip by Xi and other high-level visits to smuggle ivory out of Tanzania.

Meng Xianlin, director general of the Endangered Species Import and Export Management Office of China, said he has never heard of involvement of Chinese delegations in ivory trade.

“I don’t think there’s hard evidence, and I have not seen such cases,” Meng said.

“Allegations without evidence are not believable, and I don’t think it is appropriate for [EIA] to come up with this mess.”

He said that the EIA has been “unfriendly to China for quite some time,” calling the allegations irresponsible.

The illicit trade began to explode in China in 2008, when Beijing was permitted to purchase 62 tons of ivory under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species. The purchase was presented as a way to keep alive China’s traditional artisan ivory carving industry. A state-owned enterprise was authorized to sell the legal ivory to about 200 licensed factories and vendors.

But, after legal pieces started showing up in shops, ivory soon became a status symbol in China. Carved ivory has historically been highly prized in China, and its scarcity has turned it into an investment choice akin to gold and silver.

Critics say the legal stockpile of ivory has provided a convenient cover for a thriving black market in recent years.

The country’s licensing system is flawed and enforcement is lax, said Grace Ge Gabriel, Asian regional director for International Fund for Animal Welfare. On top of that, the ivory-buying public in China is largely unaware that the global ivory trade is banned and that elephants must be killed in order to obtain tusks. Many are simply indifferent to the plight of an animal species on a distant continent, she said.

In its report, EIA said its investigators learned as early as 2006 that some staff members of the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania were major buyers of illegal ivory.

It said Chinese government officials and businesspeople in the entourage during Xi’s 2013 state visit used the opportunity to buy such a large amount of ivory that local prices doubled. Two traders claimed that Chinese buyers, two weeks before the visit, began purchasing thousands of kilograms of ivory, which was later sent to China in diplomatic bags on the presidential plane, the EIA report said.

“Your president was here,” one of the traders told investigators in hidden video footage provided by the agency. “When he was here, many kilos go out.”

“When the guest come, the whole delegation, that’s time … the business go out,” the trader said.

AP Photo/Bullit Marquez / FileWorkers prepare seized elephant tusks to be crushed by a backhoe during a destruction ceremony at the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines June 21, 2013.

Another ivory dealer made a similar claim about the entourage for former Chinese President Hu Jintao on his 2009 state visit to Tanzania, the report said. “Then they go direct to the airport, because VIP no-one checks your bag,” the dealer told investigators.

It said that in December 2013, one dealer boasted of having sold $50,000 worth of ivory to Chinese navy personnel on an official visit in Tanzania’s port city of Dar es Salaam. It said a Chinese national was caught trying to enter the port with 81 illegal tusks intended for two Chinese naval officers.

In China, authorities have campaigned against illegal ivory. Six tons of illegal ivory was pulverized earlier this year in the southern city of Dongguan, and Chinese courts have stepped up prosecutions of illegal ivory trade.

Criminal cases involving endangered animals and the illegal ivory trade rose 9.6% in the first months of last year, compared with the same period a year earlier. The government also warns Chinese tourists in Tanzania not to purchase ivory products or face stiff penalties.

But animal rights and environmental protection advocates have called on China to ban the ivory trade altogether.

“We are already seeing the detrimental effect to allow a little bit of the ivory trade. We know that does not work,” Ge Gabriel of IFAW said. “We certainly hope any country that has a domestic ivory market should shut it down.”

Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park is home to the largest number of wild animals in any one place in the world. The pastoral Maasai tribe who live around the park call it “Serengit,” which means endless plain. It is what the Earth looked like when our ancestors left this rift valley country a mere 50,000 years ago, to populate the rest of the world. The Serengeti has changed little since then. For that reason, many visitors have nicknamed it “Pleistocene Park,” as it gives sightseers a taste of what the world was like when human beings were a mere dot on the landscape, centuries before the rise of agriculture in the ancient civilizations of the Nile valley. No film or book can substitute for the visceral experience of a wildlife safari in one of the last pristine wilderness environments on Earth.

Today, the Serengeti is still home to herds of elephant, giraffe, zebra, lion, buffalo and the more than one million wildebeest, who each year migrate between the Serengeti in Tanzania and its northern extension, the Maasai Mara park over the border in Kenya. This great migration is one of the world’s most impressive natural events. It involves about 1.3 million wildebeest, 500,000 Thomson’s gazelle, 97,000 topi, 18,000 eland and 200,000 zebra.

These migrants are followed along their annual, circular route by hungry predators such as lions and hyenas. The Serengeti also contains crocodiles, hippopotamuses, gazelles and more than 450 species of tropical birds. Some anthropologists argue that the story of the Garden of Eden is an traditional tale that harkens back to the time when the world was young and our ancestors were all hunters and gatherers, scavenging and surviving among wild animals in environments such as the Serengeti — a place that happens to be close to Olduvai Gorge, where archaeologist Louis Leakey discovered early man.

The more than 2,000 elephants that are now part of the Serengeti Park ecosystem are protected by trained and armed Tanzanian Park Rangers. They are materially and logistically supported by a range of international conservation organizations, such as the Frankfurt Zoological Society, which sponsored the 1959 Academy Award winning documentary film that called for the future conservation of Serengeti, Serengeti Shall Not Die.

Recent ecological studies have shown that the elephants of the Serengeti “know” that it is safer to stay in the park than range outside of its borders, where villagers may hunt them for meat and tusks, as scientists have shown that elephants learn and communicate effectively with one another and that they have memories that are longer than their trunks.

Today, Africa is experiencing another continent-wide upsurge of elephant poaching. Each year, about 25,000 elephants are killed across the land. During the last decade, poachers have killed off 60% of Africa’s elephants. Experts believe that poachers kill at least 25 elephants each day in Africa.

This is not a new phenomenon. A mere 100 years ago, the elephants of the Serengeti were few and far between. During the late 19th century, their numbers were declining, as Swahili hunters were killing them off in record numbers to provide Britain and Europe with billiard balls and white piano keys. Only when Tanzania (then Tanganyika) came under British control, were the lessons of modern biology and ecology applied to Britain’s East African dominions. In 1940, the Serengeti was declared a protected area. Big game hunting was banned and the elephant herds bounced back. In 1951, it became a national park. During the early days of Tanzanian independence, elephant numbers were up, but during the 1970s and ’80s, poachers across Africa were decimating elephant herds and selling their ivory to buyers in the Far East, who were using it to make ivory sculptures.

In 1989 my former employer, Richard Leakey, of archaeological and wildlife conservation fame, managed to convince then president of Kenya, Daniel Arap Moi, to support his campaign to ban ivory sales worldwide. Together they succeeded, and within a decade, elephant populations once again bounced back across Sub_Saharan Africa. But then something happened that no one had foreseen.

Richard Moller/Tsavo Trust

China, which was experiencing an industrial revolution, realized that Africa could become its source of raw materials, its breadbasket and a place of emigration from its crowded cities. Almost overnight, the Chinese became the most powerful economic and political force in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are now more than one million Chinese living across the continent, and as their economic prospects improve, they would almost all like to buy ivory or ivory products. This has triggered the most recent wave of elephant poaching in Africa and facilitated equally massive amounts of smuggling along the Indian Ocean coast, which is used to bring this illegal ivory to Asian markets. Although the Serengeti’s elephants are still well protected, other herds from Mali to the Red Sea are suffering serious losses due to poaching.

Today, it is the religious beliefs of the Chinese and South East Asians (including Catholic Philipinos) that is driving the trade and causing this latest drop in Africa’s elephant populations. Now, most smuggled ivory ends up as carvings of Baby Jesuses and Saints in the Philippines, Islamic prayer beads in the Muslim world, Coptic Crosses in Egypt and a range of religious sculptures in Buddhist countries. China, however, consumes the lion’s share.

There are 200 million Buddhists in China, countless millions in Thailand and Southeast Asia and 75 million Catholics in the Philippines. All of them use ivory for the creation of sacred statues that are blessed by priests, and which are then considered to have given the ivory some sort of religious or magical power that brings good fortune to the owner.

In China, ivory is used to create large and exquisitely carved statues for Buddhist and Taoist clients. A credible witness saw one carving of this nature on sale for $215,000 dollars. Buddhist monks in China perform a ceremony called “opening the light,” which takes profane ivory and makes it sacred. Some Chinese Buddhists argue that if you truly respect the Buddha, you must use a precious material such as ivory, which is considered even more valuable than gold.

Researchers who have studied the trade have noted that many Buddhist and Catholic priests are well aware that the ivory is smuggled. Because these are very religious countries where ivory is considered sacred, it is easy to smuggle either raw ivory or carved sculptures in and out of these states. In the minds of many, ivory is the opposite of contraband drugs, which are deadly and profane. So there is little motivation to curb the trade, as, in many countries, the sacred trumps the secular law and the international treaties that are ignored by almost everyone.

Going undercover for National Geographic, researcher Bryan Christy wrote, “If someone in the Philippines wants to smuggle an ivory statue of the baby Jesus to the U.S., Msgr. Cristobal Garcia is happy to advise, ‘Wrap it in old, stinky underwear and pour ketchup on it so it looks sh—y with blood.…This is how it is done.’ Monsignor Garcia is head of protocol for the archdiocese of Cebu, the largest in the Philippines, giving him a flock of nearly four million in a country of 75 million Roman Catholics, the world’s third largest Catholic population. The tradition of carving ivory into religious pieces in the Philippines is so deeply rooted that in Cebu the word for ivory, garing, also means ‘religious statue.’ ”

The presumptive 2012 nominee, Romney is expected to make a steady, "do-no-harm" choice and avoid the type of "Hail Mary" selection that Palin represented, in his bid to unseat President Barack Obama.In picking a vice presidential running mate, Republican Mitt Romney wants to avoid the Sarah Palin syndrome.
Then-Republican nominee John McCain shook up the 2008 race with his dramatic choice of the relatively unknown Palin, but the problems she faced during the campaign will be on the minds of Romney and his vice presidential search team.
The presumptive 2012 nominee, Romney is expected to make a steady, "do-no-harm" choice and avoid the type of "Hail Mary" selection that Palin represented, in his bid to unseat President Barack Obama.
[np-related]
Aides say Romney wants someone with deep, rock-solid experience who could take over the presidency if needed. Being able to work well as a team player is also essential.
Romney seems unlikely to pick a No. 2 from the group of candidates who ran for the nomination this year and lost.
That would rule out Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul and Herman Cain. It seems doubtful that Romney's last chief rival, conservative Rick Santorum, would be selected although he may end up on the short list for appearance's sake.
But Tim Pawlenty, a conservative former Minnesota governor, is popular within the Romney campaign and will likely be given consideration. Well-regarded by evangelicals, Pawlenty has spoken up for Romney since he pulled out of the race.
Most Republicans want a candidate who at the very least will not damage Romney's chances of defeating Obama and, ideally, would bolster the ticket.
Palin, the former Alaska governor, energized the Republicans' conservative base and still does. But in the 2008 campaign, her lack of knowledge about global affairs and her inability to name a newspaper she reads, made her the stuff of late-night comics and ultimately undermined McCain's candidacy.
This would seem to limit the chance that someone could be plucked out of obscurity, as Palin was.
"There's surprise and then there's big surprise, and I think you want a lower-case surprise," said Republican strategist Tucker Eskew.
One other factor Romney must weigh is whether to make a glitzy choice who could excite Republicans but overshadow Romney himself, like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
"Clearly there are risks to having someone who is more dynamic or who is more of a firecracker than yourself," said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. "The benefit of having a someone who is much more dynamic than you is that it creates excitement around your candidacy. The downside is if this person goes off message and over-reaches, it can have a negative impact on the campaign."
A decision is unlikely until just before Republicans meet in Tampa in late August to crown Romney as their nominee.
Here's a look at who many Republicans think are the top contenders, the second-tier candidates and the long shots.
<strong>THE SHORTEST OF SHORT LISTS</strong>
The focus of the greatest speculation has been on five big names in the party: Three are Ohio Senator Rob Portman, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee.
Rounding out the top five are New Jersey's Christie and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
-- Portman, 56, endorsed Romney early on and campaigned with him in Ohio, helping the former Massachusetts governor to a narrow win in a battleground state that will be key to whether Romney wins the White House. Portman is a relatively low-key but deeply experienced politician and would be seen as a safe, steady choice. But as a former budget director for Republican President George W. Bush, Portman would be an easy target for Democrats, who could accuse him of contributing to the dire fiscal shape the government's finances are in. He also served as U.S. trade representative, which could be crucial experience in Romney's desire for expanding U.S. exports abroad and fairer global trade. He has not ruled out accepting a vice presidential nod.
-- Rubio, 40, is a Cuban-American who, if selected, would be seen as a bridge to the growing Hispanic population that votes heavily in favor of Democrats. All eyes will be on him Monday as he campaigns in Pennsylvania with Romney. Republicans acknowledge the need for attracting a greater percentage of Latinos to their party. At the same time, picking him could energize conservatives who have been less than enthusiastic about the more moderate Romney. Counting against Rubio would be his relative youth and inexperience. He has only been a senator since his 2010 election and has no major legislative track record. Many Republicans see him as a contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination itself, which could be a big reason why he might want to sit out 2012. Rubio on Sunday touted former Florida governor Jeb Bush as a "fantastic" choice as Romney's running mate but remained coy about whether he himself would accept such an offer.
-- Ryan, 42, bonded with Romney during the Wisconsin primary in April as the two criss-crossed the state together. He is a rising star within the party. "He is always a very strong leader of the Republican Party," Romney told Fox Radio of Ryan. And picking him could help Romney win Wisconsin, a state that has eluded Republicans in recent elections despite vigorous campaigns there. What Romney and his aides will have to debate is whether picking Ryan would make his controversial budget-cutting plan a central feature of the campaign. Ryan's 2013 budget blueprint would cut $5 trillion more than Obama has proposed and would make deep cuts to Medicare and Medicaid social programs for the poor and elderly. Romney has given general support to Ryan's plan but not an outright endorsement. Whether Ryan has sufficient life experience outside of Washington could also work against him. By choosing Ryan, Romney would be making a statement that it is fine to make the race a referendum on the U.S. budget and the Ryan plan. Ryan has said he would consider being the No. 2. "If this bridge ever comes that I should cross it, then I'll think about it then. It's not the time to think about it," he told the Wall Street Journal.
-- Christie, 49, is a rock star in the Republican Party. He chose not to run for president in 2012 and instead endorsed Romney. He has been an effective advocate for him on the campaign trail. As a Republican governor in a mostly Democratic state, he has taken on entrenched Democratic institutions there with fervor. A bombastic politician who is fluent on the issues, Christie would be an ideal attack dog on the campaign trail. Some conservatives would frown on the pick, fearing he is too moderate. Some Republicans also worry that the contentious Christie could be a distraction with his verbal fire-bombs, or overshadow Romney, who sometimes has trouble connecting with voters. Also potential concerns are Christie's massive girth and whether his health could withstand the pressures of the job. A Quinnipiac University poll last week found him the lead choice of likely voters for the No. 2 slot. He hasn't ruled it out. "If Governor Romney comes to me and wants to talk about it, I'll always listen," he told a town hall event earlier this month.
-- Jindal, 40, is a major voice in the conservative movement and could help Romney patch up relations with a base that was reluctant to choose him during the long, bitter primary fight. Jindal is an Indian-American and former member of the U.S. House of Representatives. As governor, he grappled with the fallout and recovery from the 2010 BP oil spill that shattered fishing communities along Louisiana's Gulf coast, and was seen as handling it well. When given a big opportunity on the national stage, however, he flubbed when he delivered the Republican response to Obama's 2009 speech to a joint session of Congress. The question for Romney would be whether Jindal is too timid a pick for the attack-dog role the vice presidential candidate often plays. He has not ruled out accepting the VP nod if asked.
<strong>LONGER SHOTS</strong>
Beyond those five, the secondary possibilities include Pawlenty, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels.
-- Pawlenty would bring a reliably conservative voice to Romney's team and would appeal to evangelicals, whose energy and enthusiasm will be needed to turn out the vote. His problem during his failed 2012 campaign was that he was not an electrifying presence on the trail.
-- McDonnell backed Romney early and could help deliver his home state to the Republicans after they lost it to Obama in 2008. Then again, the growing population of Democrats in Northern Virginia could mean Obama wins it again even with McDonnell on the ticket. McDonnell would face questions about a law he pushed through the state legislature requiring women to have an ultrasound procedure before having an abortion. Romney opposes abortion but may want to avoid anything that could distract from his central economic message. Republicans are having enough trouble appealing to women voters as it is, which is why McDonnell is unlikely to be the choice.
-- Jeb Bush would be a bold choice because he could overshadow Romney. A conservative, Bush has led the national debate on reforming the U.S. education system, and he could help Romney win the crucial battleground state of Florida. He is often mentioned as a future presidential candidate. His biggest problem is simply sharing the Bush name, after his brother, George W. Bush, left the White House in 2009 as an unpopular figure. While Republicans in general would have no problem with a Bush on the ticket, independent voters who will be key to the election could be turned off. Chances are that Bush sits out 2012 and contemplates a 2016 race for the presidency.
-- Daniels drew rave reviews for a speech in 2011 that declared America's debt crisis a new "red menace." He opted against a presidential run despite ardent pleas for him to make a late leap into the campaign. Daniels cited family reasons for deciding not to run. His personal story is complicated. He was divorced after his wife left him with their children for another man, but they were later reunited in what Daniels called a classic love story. He may want his family to avoid media attention. He has said he does not want to be considered by Romney.
<strong>ALSO IN THE MIX</strong>
Toss into the mix these names as well:
-- New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte has close ties to Romney and campaigned heavily with him in her home state in the Republican primary. She might be too inexperienced, since she has only been in the Senate for less than two years.
-- A pair of Hispanic governors, Nevada's Brian Sandoval and New Mexico's Susana Martinez. Choosing one or the other would signal Romney's intention to compete strongly for the Hispanic vote, which could be pivotal in Southwestern states. Martinez is relatively inexperienced, only serving as governor for 15 months, and may be likened to Palin as a little-known woman governor from a small state. Martinez has said repeatedly she is not interested in serving as vice president.
-- Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would provide deep foreign policy knowledge. She has said repeatedly she does not want to be considered. But Republicans in a poll last week cited her as their top choice for the job. Her downsides are that she has no real record on domestic policy issues and her tenure as a top Bush aide linked to the unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She has also shown little inclination to leave academic life at Stanford University. But the lure of being the first African-American woman to become vice president could be hard to pass up.

Christy also met with corrupt Buddhist monks in Thailand who deal in smuggled ivory and heard of one who even poisons local elephants to get their tusks. This takes place in a land where Buddhism is the state religion and the elephant is a national symbol.

To aggravate matters even further, the Chinese authorities have recently and dramatically raised the price of ivory. This increases its black market value in Africa, and acts as an incentive to poachers and smugglers throughout the continent, especially in countries such as Kenya and Tanzania, whose coastline gives them easy access to Asian markets. During the last three years alone, on the once-sleepy tourist island of Zanzibar, Tanzanian authorities seized a number of shipments of illegal ivory, including a 40-foot container that held several tonnes. These seizures are just the tip of the iceberg. Bear in mind that the illegal sale of two tusks of Tanzanian ivory on the black market is the equivalent to a year’s salary for many people in the region.

Even the Hollywood glitterati are beginning to show concern for the elephant. At an event held in Malibu, Leonardo Di Caprio, Barbara Streisand and a host of other celebrities raised millions of dollars for the Elephant Crisis Fund. But the fund’s director is Kenya-based conservationist Dr. Ian Douglas Hamilton, who has been unsuccessfully fighting to protect African elephants for the last 50 years. Perhaps this money should be directed somewhere else.

The best way to stop this is to reduce the demand for ivory and support the nature preserves

Conservation organizations in Europe and the United States have been slow to wake up to the fact that, in order to save the African elephant, they will have to get involved with massive publicity campaigns in China and other Asian countries. One survey carried out in China suggested that a majority of those polled thought that ivory falls out of elephants’ mouths like old teeth, and they had no idea that most of it was poached and smuggled into their country.

Unlike Hamilton, Peter Knights heads a pressure group called Wild Aid. He has argued that only a “demand-side” approach to elephant conservation will reduce poaching. This means working with Chinese celebrities, such as basketball star Yao Ming, to persuade China’s newly empowered middle class that ivory statues made of smuggled tusks will not bring the blessings that their priests have promised them. Towards the same end, the American Buddhist Confederation has lobbied New York and other states to ban ivory sales, as Manhattan has been central to the ivory trade.

During my 17 years in East Africa, I met many of the first Chinese entrepreneurs who had come to the continent to make their fortunes. I found them to be interested in, and open to, the world. They are also interested in wildlife and enjoy going on Safari in game parks such as the Serengeti, as much as anyone else. If a concentrated media campaign was aimed at them, utilizing Chinese media celebrities, the demand for ivory could disappear in a short period of time. In the meantime, we in the West can help in another way.

We can make sure that we still visit Africa’s game parks. Every dollar spent on a Safari in Tanzania goes toward park fees, local employment, food, hotels, tented camps, transportation and park patrols. And it provides poor countries such as Tanzania with the hard currency and tax base that their governments need to persuade their own citizens that game parks can pay their own way and contribute to national development. If Western tourists stop coming, it will be impossible for the conservation organizations alone to save the elephant. We have to do our part by showing up.

National Post

Anthropologist Geoffrey Clarfield will be visiting the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Olduvai Gorge this winter. Those interested in joining him can call Thomson Safaris at 617-923-0426 and ask for “Geoffrey Clarfield’s Tanzanian Safari.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/geoffrey-clarfield-return-of-the-poachers/feed0stdelephantRichard Moller/Tsavo TrustPORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty ImagesLaurie Hawn and Dr. Hermengild Mayunga: Saving women and children in Tanzania, and around the worldhttp://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/laurie-hawn-and-dr-hermengild-mayunga-saving-women-and-children-in-tanzania-and-around-the-world
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/laurie-hawn-and-dr-hermengild-mayunga-saving-women-and-children-in-tanzania-and-around-the-world#respondFri, 23 May 2014 04:01:14 +0000http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/?p=154229

Globally, 6.6 million children die each year from preventable and curable diseases, such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and measles, and 287,000 mothers die during pregnancy and delivery. It is possible to prevent most of these deaths through cost-effective solutions, such as national immunization and child-health programs, which is why Canada has chosen to send a clear message to the world: We are not giving up on saving the lives of mothers and children.

Later this month, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is hosting a high-level international summit that will shape the future of global action on maternal and child-health issues. This summit will build on Canada’s leadership and chart the way forward for the next phase of global efforts.

In 2010, through a program known as the Muskoka Initiative, world leaders partnered to give a final push to achieve 2015 targets to decrease mortality rates of mothers and children under five years old. Following on Canada’s leadership pledge of $1.1-billion, G8 and non-G8 countries committed a total of $7.3-billion to this Canadian-led initiative.

Maternal and child mortality rates have consistently decreased every year since 1990

Thanks to initiatives such as this, more children are celebrating their fifth birthday and more mothers survive their pregnancy to see their children live and thrive. In fact, maternal and child mortality rates have consistently decreased every year since 1990. But despite this monumental milestone, we are failing to reach our targets for 2015.

Child and maternal mortality are not only a result of poverty, they are also a cause of poverty. We must support interventions that reach the hardest to reach people in rural, remote communities, in order to fulfill our goal of increasing access to quality health care and other life-saving programs. No child or mother should be left behind in these efforts.

In Tanzania — a country we have focused on, and one that has proven to be a reliable development partner — we have witnessed the improvement in child and maternal health through a number of programs. Routine immunization campaigns in remote communities often serve as a platform to deliver other health interventions, such as vitamin A supplements and maternal supplements, such as iron. Many of these programs are implemented by a hard-working community of volunteer health-care workers who walk for hours on difficult terrain to reach mothers and babies living in the furthest rural communities.

This past year, through the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, we successfully introduced two new vaccines in Tanzania

With Canada’s support, Tanzania installed walk-in cold rooms, which are used to store vaccines, in 35 regions — increasing its safe storage capacity of vaccines from 15,546 litres in 2009, to 97,144 litres in 2012. This past year, through the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, we successfully introduced two new vaccines in Tanzania (rotavirus and pneumococcal) to significantly reduce child mortality due to diarrhea, pneumonia and other diseases.

Furthermore, as part of the pre-summit announcements, the government of Canada announced additional funding for three important initiatives: $10.2-million to Comprehensive Community Based Tanzania for health system strengthening; $20-million to Family Health International for newborn survival; and $20-million to the United Nations Children’s Fund for the expansion of its birth registration programs.

These contributions, and Canada’s leadership, are making a significant difference in rural and urban regions across Tanzania and other developing countries, but we still have work to do, to ensure that maternal and child deaths hit zero. It is the right thing to do and, more importantly, it is achievable.

As world leaders gather in Toronto later this month, we ask for continued support for life-saving health initiatives, from Canada and our G8 partners. It is not too late to take action; the most vulnerable cannot wait.

National Post

Laurie Hawn is the Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre. Dr. Hermengild Mayunga is currently working as a senior consultant for the Tanzania Parliamentary Committee Against Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases.

A funeral Tuesday at an Ismaili Muslim mosque in Toronto will bring to a close the tragic lives of a Tanzanian refugee family from London, Ont., found dead last Thursday in what police describe as a double murder and suicide.

But troubling questions will remain, as detectives try to sort out who was the shooter, and whether there was some kind of suicide pact, or any indication of motive, mental illness, or other relevant circumstance.

London police will confirm little about the investigation, but one thing seems likely — that 21-year-old Qyzra Walji, a severely disabled young woman with cerebral palsy who graduated high school this year and has written movingly about her new life in Canada, was killed by one of her parents.

Unable to walk or talk, and confined to wheelchair with a computerized speaking aid, Qyzra Walji was a popular student at Oakridge Secondary School and well known in London as an advocate for the disabled, taking part in fashion shows and musical theatre.

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She was not intellectually disabled, and in a speech two years ago, she praised her mother for the sacrifices she made to give her a better life in Canada than she could have had in Tanzania.

“She is a very strong woman — this is why she is my ultimate role model. She never gives up and even when things are not going as planned or as hoped, she always pushes through. She always puts me first and makes sure I have the best of everything. I hope I will be as strong as her when I get older,” she said.

Qyzra’s body was found in her family’s ground floor apartment in London, as were the bodies of her parents Mohammed, 43, and Shyroz, 42. All died of gunshots and a firearm was recovered at the scene, according to Constable Melissa Duncan.

The circumstances remain puzzling, and despite the killings apparently taking place in a small apartment building that mainly houses students from nearby Western University, Const. Duncan said she was unaware of any reports of gunshots.

The killings were discovered Thursday when police responded to a request to check on the family’s welfare, and entered the apartment with the new superintendent.

Mr. Walji, who trained as a mechanical engineer in Tanzania, had quit the week before as superintendent of the building, and according to reports in the London Free Press, he told friends his family was moving out west to be with his sister.

The Walji family came to Canada 15 years ago as refugees from Tanzania, and feared deportation as they spent thousands on immigration counsel, seeking permanent residency.

“They always seemed to scrape by … but the system failed them,” said Amanda Dunn, an educational assistant who became friends with Qyzra, according to the London Free Press. “They were all victims. How could they have been here so long, just existing, and not get status? That could’ve really changed their lives.”

They were all victims. How could they have been here so long, just existing, and not get status? That could’ve really changed their lives

Shyroz volunteered with disabilities charities, and also tried for a while to run a tuck shop in the building, though it did not last.

Qyzra maintained a Facebook page that announced her love of Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and Usher, the Twilight movies, America’s Next Top Model,Glee, The Vampire Diaries, and a local auto racing team. It also referenced her support for a conference next year in Portugal for the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication, a Toronto-based group that deals with complex communication disabilities.

“I have really good eye gestures, and that’s how people read me. Maybe since I have something that limits me, I was given other powers, like a big smile, to make up for it,” she said in the speech, the text of which was made public by the Thames Valley Children’s Centre.

“I love to be creative and express myself. I have two more years of high school and I have goals to attend either college or university when I am done. I’m interested in taking a course that involves fashion. I would also love to find a job in the community once I am finished high school, preferably in a retail store where I can put my good fashion sense to use!”

Some of the most disturbing disclosures in the aftermath of a savage acid attack on two British women in Zanzibar have come from statements by prominent Tanzanian officials. “I beg our nationals,” said Said Ali Mbarouk, Minister of Information, Culture, Sports and Tourism, “this is not something they should be doing. Tourism is the strongest pillar of our economy, so if we do such acts we are killing our economy, and our livelihoods in general.” Current MP and former tourism association chairman Simai Mohammed Said conveyed a similar message: “The police need to interview everyone. As the days go by, the culprits have more and more time to run, and it’s more likely that tourists will leave the island.”

To a Western ear, those statements might seem remarkably off-key. While two teenagers are grappling with the after-effects of a devastating, unprovoked attack, officials in Zanzibar are worried about upholding tourism.

Unfortunately, though, the frequency of violence in Zanzibar and neighbouring Tanzanian regions makes the moral argument against such assaults generally unpersuasive. Tourism, after all, is the top income-generator in Zanzibar. Zanzibari officials know they must condemn the personal implications of these types of attacks, especially when they involve foreigners. So unsurprisingly, their message is economical: Acid attacks can impact your livelihood, so you must help us to shut them down. This may work in the short term. But long-term, Tanzania, and indeed, other regions where acid attacks are growing in prevalence, need a fundamental shift in perceptions of the welfare of women. Unless, and until, that happens, the violence will continue.

The attacks on 18-year-olds Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup were just two of 1,500 acid attacks reported globally each year, though according to Acid Survivors Trust International, an organization that works to end acid violence around the world, the actual number of incidents is much higher. Working as volunteer teachers in Zanzibar, Gee and Trup were walking in Stone Town at around 7 p.m. on August 7 when a pair of passersby on mopeds threw acid at them, burning their faces, necks, hands, and chests. Gee and Trup have since returned to London where they are receiving treatment.

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The motivation for the attack remains unknown, though some have speculated it may be related to the women’s religion (Judaism) or the fact they were travelling without a man (unacceptable by some Islamic interpretations). Indeed, while the majority of the population in Tanzania is Christian, Zanzibar is almost entirely Islamic, with increasing tension driven by religious fundamentalism. It’s very possible that that fundamentalism was a factor in the attack on the British women, evidenced especially by the fact that on July 24, Katie Gee tweeted, “A Muslim woman just hit me in the street for singing on Ramadan. Is that normal.”

While zeroing in on Doug Martin in this year’s draft, the Broncos traded away a late-first-round pickDENVER — Starting with the Peyton Manning signing, almost every big decision the Broncos front office has made since John Elway took over has worked out.
One exception: the time they tried to draft the “Dougie.”
While zeroing in on Doug Martin in this year’s draft, the Broncos traded away a late-first-round pick, thinking the running back from Boise State would still be there when they picked a few spots later. Their trading partner: Tampa Bay, which used the Broncos’ pick to take Martin 31st in the draft.
The teams meet Sunday with the Broncos (8-3) needing a win to wrap up the AFC West title and the Buccaneers (6-5), with their prize rookie, Martin, trying to stay in the thick of the NFC wild-card chase.
“He was very high on our board,” Broncos coach John Fox says. “He’s a guy that I know our personnel people liked, our coaching staff liked. His success doesn’t surprise me whatsoever.”
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Propelled by Martin, fourth in the NFL with 1,050 yards rushing, a strong comeback season from quarterback Josh Freeman and the tough-love approach from first-year coach Greg Schiano, the Buccaneers are among the league’s biggest surprises.
They have won four of their last five and are tied with Minnesota and Seattle for the NFC’s last wild-card spot.
It was at the end of October that Martin’s potential went on full display. He had 214 combined yards in a 36-17 win over Minnesota on Oct. 25, then ran for 251 yards — highest total in the league this year — in a 42-32 win over Oakland on Nov. 4.
Schiano says his rookie running back reminds him of Baltimore’s Ray Rice, the 5-foot-8, 215-pound two-time Pro Bowler who Schiano coached at Rutgers. Martin is 5-9, 210.
“They both have some unique abilities: vision, patience, balance, strength, those kinds of things that allow them to be really good running backs,” Schiano says. “Some of those things you can develop and some of them are God given, and that’s what makes those two special.”
For his part, Martin says he knew the Buccaneers were among the teams most interested in him as the draft approached, while he hadn’t heard much from the Broncos.
<blockquote class="npPullquote">His success doesn’t surprise me whatsoever</blockquote>
“I had a good feeling, because earlier on, I got a call from Tampa Bay, and they were just seeing if I was basically still alive and still moving,” Martin says.
Though the Broncos failed to land Martin, they still made some productive picks in the draft.
The second-round choice they received from Tampa Bay turned into defensive tackle Derek Wolfe, who has started every game and picked up three sacks.
The Broncos filled their running back needs in the third round by choosing Ronnie Hillman out of San Diego State; Hillman has given the Broncos depth and provided a change of pace. He has 52 carries for 197 yards.
Meanwhile, Knowshon Moreno, a former first-round draft pick, filled in for the injured Willis McGahee last week. He rushed for 85 yards in a 17-9 win over Kansas City and is expected to start again Sunday.
Before starting last week against the Chiefs, Moreno spent eight weeks as a game-day inactive, mostly working on the scout team.
The forgotten back? Hardly.
“He wasn’t forgotten with us,” Broncos linebacker Wesley Woodyard says. “He’s been kicking our tail on defence. That’s part of the reason why we’ve been so good in our run defence, because the looks that he’s been giving us, it’s like ’Dude, as soon as you get your chance, you’re going to explode.”’
It doesn’t appear Martin will be relegated to the scout team anytime soon, though last week in a 24-23 loss to Atlanta, the Bucs’ running game was held to 50 yards, its poorest showing of the season.
[caption id="attachment_125769" align="aligncenter" width="620"]<a href="http://nationalpostsports.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/manning4.jpg"><img src="http://nationalpostsports.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/manning4.jpg&quot; alt="" width="620" height="465" class="size-full wp-image-125769" /></a> Peyton Manning and the Denver offence took a step back last week. (Charlie Riedel/The Associated Press)[/caption]
Tackle Donald Penn said it’s a priority for Tampa Bay to get its running game revved up again against the Broncos. Nobody wants to try to match Manning and the Broncos’ offence pass for pass.
“It’s very important, especially when you look at it in the context of, we kind of took a step back last week and you want to take two steps forward this week,” Penn said.
Of course, Manning and the Denver offence took a step back last week, too.
The Broncos managed only 17 points, the result of two missed field goals, an interception and an inability to string together much momentum against a stubborn Kansas City defence.
The Buccaneers have the league’s last-ranked passing defence, but one that takes big chances and makes big plays. The defence leads the league with 94 plays that have gone for negative yardage. Led by 16-year veteran Ronde Barber (4) and undrafted rookie Leonard Johnson (3), Tampa Bay ranks third with 16 interceptions. The Buccaneers have produced 22 turnovers and converted those into 89 points, fourth most in the league.
“I see a team that’s causing turnovers and their offence is turning those turnovers into touchdowns,” Manning said. “They’re not giving it right back to the other team or settling for field goals. Sometimes it’s 14-point swings.”
The last time Manning faced one of the league’s worst pass defences was Oct. 28 against New Orleans, then ranked No. 30.
He threw for 305 yards and three scores in a 34-14 win. It’s the last time the Broncos’ offence has really clicked for an entire game.
“You’re always trying to play that perfect game,” Manning said. “Whether you can or you can’t, you still strive for that.”
The Broncos could still lose this game and wrap up the AFC West. If San Diego loses to Cincinnati, Denver would win its second straight and 12th overall division title.
Win or lose, the Bucs will have no guarantees, though their next three games are against Philadelphia, New Orleans and St. Louis, none of which has a winning record.
Tampa Bay has taken the league by surprise even if its star rookie, Martin, hasn’t.
“There was a collective agreement,” Schiano said, “that this was a guy that fit what we wanted to do.”

Attack by acid, which is perpetrated by men against women in about 80% of cases, is often used as a tool of subjugation in areas such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Uganda and Cambodia. A recent case hit close to home in Canada when a student at the University of British Columbia was blinded by her husband in a brutal physical attack on a trip to Bangladesh, during which he also threatened to throw acid on her. This form of abuse is unique to almost all others in that its intention is less to injure than to permanently mar — the result being a permanent scarlet letter by way of disfigured face. In many cases (especially in India) it is the weapon of choice for spurned suitors. In other cases, it is used against girls or women believed to have brought dishonour to their families or husbands. And while throwing acid is a fairly new phenomenon — just picking up within the last 20 or 30 years — the reasons behind it remain deeply engrained in beliefs of honour, faith and the role of women.

To try to curb attacks, some countries — including India and Bangladesh — have drafted laws aimed at controlling the sale, storage and distribution of certain types of acid. Pakistan passed a law a couple of years ago making perpetrators of acid attacks subject to lifetime imprisonment. Nonetheless, the attacks continue. In the same vein, I suspect the effort by Zanzibari officials to use tourism as a preventive tool will have only a limited effect. The real change will only come when religious and cultural fundamentalists begin to value the welfare of a woman — foreign or otherwise — over a deluded sense of dignity. That day, it seems, is a long way off.

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania — Assailants on the East African island of Zanzibar threw acid on two British women volunteering at a primary school on the Tanzanian island, police said Thursday.

The attackers, riding on a small motorcycle, threw the acid on the women’s faces and arms as they were walking, said Mkadam Khamis, a police commander on the island. The attack took place Wednesday night in an area of the island’s capital city known as Stone Town, an area popular with tourists.

The women, 18, were transferred to Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, for medical treatment. The pair were volunteer teaching at a primary school affiliated with the Anglican Church, Khamis said.

Full Comment’s Araminta Wordsworth brings you a daily round-up of quality punditry from across the globe. After a decade of legal battles, Abu Hamza al-Masri has finally been deported from Britain to face U.S. justice.

Within hours of his ultimate appeal being rejected in Strasbourg, the Egyptian-born Muslim cleric and four other suspected terrorists were on a plane to New York.

The rabble-rousing, bloody-thirsty imam, who lost both hands and an eye fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, is accused of supporting al-Qaeda, aiding a kidnapping in Yemen and plotting to open a jihadist camp in Oregon. He was jailed in Britain for inciting racial hatred and murder from his mosque in North London.

In his last-ditch bid to stay in the U.K., he and the four other claimed their human rights would be breached if they were to be incarcerated in a super-max jail in Colorado.

Not that they had any concern about the human rights of their victims — two of the suspects are to face trial for their involvement in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in which at least 300 people died.

As The Daily Telegraph’s Tom Whitehead reported, the judges on the Upper Grand Chamber gave scant shrift to the human rights’ argument.

In the landmark judgment, the court concluded that extradition to the U.S. would not lead to inhuman treatment.
It unanimously dismissed claims that conditions in American “supermax” jails were degrading, instead ruling that facilities such as televisions, telephones and arts and crafts actually “went beyond” what was provided in most European prisons.

Simon Hughes and Pete Samson at The Sun wax apoplectic as they tot up the bill for British tax payers: £1,623,638 ($2,540,205) — or £531 a day.

Hamza spent 3,053 days in London’s top-security Belmarsh since he was held on a U.S. warrant in 2004. That cost £70,000 a year, leading to a final jail bill of £577,497.
While inside he had £10,000 of surgery on the arms he lost in an explosion in Afghanistan. And an extra £650 was spent modifying the taps in his cell. Hamza, 54, has also been heavily funded by legal aid.
His extradition fight plus a criminal trial — which ended in a seven-year jail term for soliciting to murder and inciting hatred in 2006 — has cost the taxpayer £153,091.
Wife Nadjet, with whom he has seven kids, lives in a £600,000 council house in Shepherd’s Bush, West London. A makeover — including a new £13,500 kitchen and a £8,500 bathroom — has cost a further £25,000.
His family have also pocketed around £650 a week in various state handouts which are expected to continue.

Editorial writers at The Independent are also happy to bid adieu, though they temper their glee with an appeal to the U.S. to be fair.

So it is farewell then to Abu Hamza, provoker of politicians and of the media, who so delighted in demonizing him. At least the UK authorities went through due process, all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, although ministers did it with the sourest of faces. They are delighted now that the decision has gone against him, and rightly so. There will be few who will not be glad to see the back of the preacher and his rabid rhetoric.
Which is not the end of the story, of course. Abu Hamza has still to be tried in the U.S. courts and there are still doubts about the justice in sending to the U.S. judicial system Babar Ahmad and Syed Talha Ahsan, who are accused of supporting terrorism through a London jihadist site. The world does not need more martyrs at this time. So please, America, treat Abu Hamza with dignity and fairness, however galling it may be to do so.

It appears the U.S. authorities are much tougher than the Brits. Abu Hamza appeared in court sans prosthetics.

Adam Wagner, a contributor to the UK Human Rights blog, suggests the courts are partly to blame for the delay in shipping Abu Hamza to the U.S.

What caused it? To paraphrase Bill Clinton, it’s the backlog, stupid … The court has been working hard to reduce its enormous backlog of cases in the last few years, but there is still much work to be done. The backlog is currently at an eye-watering 150,000 applications …
Leaving cases to fester for years, especially highly sensitive ones such as those involving serious terrorist charges, is good for no one. The Court must do all it can, assisted of course by members states where possible, to clear its backlog and ensure the smooth administration of justice.

Wagner adds after the post he received information from the court, which suggests the backlog may not have been the only culprit, but also the complexity of this particular case.

compiled by Araminta Wordsworth awordsworth@nationalpost.com

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/british-taxpayers-happy-to-wave-good-bye-to-islamist-hate-monger/feed0stdIslamist cleric al-Masri is seen in this courtroom sketch during a court appearance in Manhattan Federal Court in New YorkCome on and safari in Tanzaniahttp://news.nationalpost.com/life/come-on-and-safari-in-tanzania
http://news.nationalpost.com/life/come-on-and-safari-in-tanzania#respondMon, 27 Aug 2012 21:03:19 +0000http://life.nationalpost.com/?p=76413

For many, no trip to Africa is complete without a safari experience, and I am no exception. I planned to fulfill my own life-long dream by booking a week in Tanzania to make friends with the animals.

The promise of spotting big game is what lures many North Americans to the continent, which has in recent years has began aggressively marketing these experiences. Safaris have become so popular that camps and operators have been forced to put the environment first and consider their impact on the land, wildlife and community, for the sustainability of the industry.

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Knowing these pitfalls, I sought out operators that operate in an environmentally sustainable way. Planet Africa Safaris (formerly Green Footprint Adventures) arranged my camp bookings and guide, and helped me navigate the sea of options. With animal sightings a priority, I settled on the northern parks of Tanzania – Serengetti, Tarangire and the Ngorongoro Conversation Area, each notable for having excellent game viewing year round.

Among the sustainable safari trailblazers, such as Planet Africa, &Beyond and Wilderness Safaris, are a small number of mobile camps that move seasonally to follow animal migrations.

A stay with the Ubuntu Camp in southern Serengetti early in the year can place you square in the middle of thousands – or if you’re lucky, hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and zebra as they prepare for their epic migration. The camp itself is made up a dozen unobtrusive canvas tents that are surprisingly luxurious inside.

In central Serengetti, the Dunia Camp is quietly integrated into the landscape at the foot of a small mountain, tucked away from the park’s main thoroughfares yet close to the game-rich Ndutu and central Sergengetti areas. Neither camp is fenced in, allowing the animals to roam freely throughout.

Near the Ngorongoro Crater – one of the best places in Africa for concentrated game viewing, the Rhotia Valley Tented Lodge has been established entirely to fund and sustain a neighbouring children’s home.

And in the smaller Tarangire National Park, Oliver’s Camp – a permanent camp located in a remote corner of the park, offers an equally enchanting experience. That is if you consider being coo’d to sleep by lions enchanting.

While I failed to lay eyes on the big cats under daylight, their calls still begat a few sleepless nights. And I felt pretty great about being in a camp where life around it seemingly went on as usual.

IF YOU GO:

GETTING THERE:KLM has flights from Toronto or Montreal to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (through Amsterdam), where you can start your safari or pick-up a shuttle to the safari hub Arusha.

WHEN TO GO:The best game viewing occurs during the dry season between June-October, when water for the animals is most scarce – but this time is also the busiest. Avoid April-May, during the heavy rains, and November-December, during the short rains. January-February is the happy medium – good game watching and fewer crowds.

Bush began going through the countries on Monday to promote efforts to fight cervical and breast cancers, and Amnesty said the three nations have an obligation to arrest him under international law.

“All countries to which George W. Bush travels have an obligation to bring him to justice for his role in torture,” said Amnesty’s senior legal adviser Matt Pollard.

“International law requires that there be no safe haven for those responsible for torture; Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia must seize this opportunity to fulfill their obligations and end the impunity George W. Bush has so far enjoyed.”

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“Amnesty International recognizes the value of raising awareness about cervical and breast cancer in Africa, the stated aim of the visit, but this cannot lessen the damage to the fight against torture caused by allowing someone who has admitted to authorizing water-boarding to travel without facing the consequences prescribed by law,” the group said in a statement.

The group claimed Bush authorized the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” and “waterboarding” on detainees held in secret by the Central Intelligence Agency between 2002 and 2009.

Amnesty’s case relies on the public record, U.S. documents obtained through access to information requests, Bush’s own memoir and a Red Cross report critical of the U.S.’s war on terror policies.

Amnesty cites several instances of alleged torture of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval facility, in Afghanistan and in Iraq, by the U.S. military.

The cases include that of Zayn al Abidin Muhammed Husayn (known as Abu Zubaydah) and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, both arrested in Pakistan. The two men were waterboarded a total of 266 times from 2002 to 2003, according to the CIA inspector general, cited by Amnesty.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/arrest-george-w-bush-during-africa-tour-amnesty-international/feed6stdFormer U.S. President George W. Bush (L) and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete pose for photographs at the State House in Dar es Salaam December 1, 2011Worldwide tuberculosis cases decline for first time: WHOhttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/worldwide-tuberculosis-cases-decline-for-first-time-who
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/worldwide-tuberculosis-cases-decline-for-first-time-who#commentsTue, 11 Oct 2011 14:24:15 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=99211

By Alina Selyukh

The number of people getting sick with tuberculosis declined last year for the first time, while the death toll reached its lowest level in a decade, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

In 2010, 8.8 million people fell ill with TB and 1.4 million died, both marking a notable decline compared to years prior, the United Nations health agency said in releasing its 2011 Global Tuberculosis Control Report.

“This is major progress. But it is no cause for complacency,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement. “Too many millions still develop TB each year, and too many die. I urge serious and sustained support for TB prevention and care, especially for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.”

About a third of the world’s population is infected with the TB bacteria, but only a small portion ever develop the disease.

The number of TB-infected people peaked in 2005, when 9 million became sick. The death toll peaked at 1.8 million in 2003, according to the WHO.

The TB bacteria destroys patients’ lung tissue, causing them to cough up the bacteria, which then spreads through the air and can be inhaled by others. If untreated, each person with active TB can infect on average 10 to 15 people a year.

TB is especially common in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Russia.

“In many countries, strong leadership and domestic financing, with robust donor support, has started to make a real difference in the fight against TB,” said WHO’s Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan in a statement.

The countries the WHO especially noted for progress in the fight against the disease were Kenya, the United Republic of Tanzania, Brazil and China.

In China alone, the TB death toll fell by nearly 80% to 55,000 people in 2010 compared to 1990.

Globally, the TB death rate dropped 40% in 2010 compared to 1990, and all regions except Africa were on track to reach a 50% mortality decline by 2015.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/worldwide-tuberculosis-cases-decline-for-first-time-who/feed1stdDeaths from tuberculosis fell globally to the lowest level in a decade, to 1.4 million in 2010, after peaking at 1.8 million in 2003.Blackwell on Health: Fighting malaria with smelly feethttp://news.nationalpost.com/health/blackwell-on-health-fighting-malaria-with-smelly-feet
http://news.nationalpost.com/health/blackwell-on-health-fighting-malaria-with-smelly-feet#commentsWed, 13 Jul 2011 10:00:17 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=55797

Sometimes simple solutions – from hygienic disposal of sewage to wearing condoms and using mosquito nets – bring the most sweeping improvements in health. A catchy new African project funded by Toronto-based Grand Challenges Canada is aiming to add to the list of low-tech anti-disease weaponry. A Tanzanian doctor and his team have developed a trap for mosquitoes that attracts the malaria-spreading insects with the odour of smelly feet.

Dr. Fredros Okumu and colleagues at Ifakara Health Institute found that stinky socks and a synthetic version of the scent that they developed lures mosquitoes at four times the rate as an actual human. The low-cost traps would be kept outside people’s homes to keep the bugs away, complementing bed nets and insect spray.

Said Dr. Peter Singer, CEO of Grand Challenges Canada:

Each year, there are almost 250 million new cases of malaria; almost 800,000 people die, and most of those deaths are children. This local Tanzanian innovation could contribute significantly to accelerating the elimination of malaria and save lives.

Grand Challenges is a non-profit organization whose goal is to combat health problems in developing countries by mixing scientific, business, social and technological innovations. The grant it is giving to the Tanzanian project is itself paid for by money from a federal government program. The smelly-sock traps are also being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.